1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer program product, system, and method for interfacing with point-in-time copy service architectures.
2. Description of the Related Art
Certain backup programs create a logical copy of a volume, which is created almost instantaneously, to avoid the data being off-line for an extended period. A logical copy operation may take just a few seconds to establish a copy relationship between a source volume and a point-in-time target volume. After establishing the logical copy, source volume data subject to an update is copied to a target volume so that the target volume has the data as of the point-in-time the logical copy was established, before the update. This defers the physical copying until an update is received. This logical copy operation is performed to minimize the time during which the source volumes are inaccessible. The point-in-time copy comprises the combination of the data in the source volume and the data to be overwritten by the updates
Certain providers of backup services that create a logical point-in-time copy require that users create specialized components to interact with their copy services. For instance, MICROSOFT® provides a point-in-time copy service called Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) that creates snapshot copies of volumes, and provides for very fast backup and restore. (MICROSOFT is a trademark if Microsoft Corporation registered in many jurisdictions worldwide). Microsoft's VSS infrastructure requires that application vendors implement a “VSS writer” to fully integrate with VSS. Implementing a VSS Writer can be a large undertaking for application vendors. Thus, some applications do not have a VSS Writer.
There is a need in the art for improved techniques for leveraging and using third part backup services.